What About Forever?
by BethSHeartbeat
Summary: Zoe and Max's wedding reception comes to a sudden end in a way that nobody could ever have expected. Contains major spoilers for this series.
1. Explosions

"Michaela! Beth! I'm so glad you could both make it!" Zoe squealed excitedly as she saw her two childhood best friends.

"We wouldn't have missed your wedding for the world Zo." Michaela replied just as excitedly as she threw her arms around the new Mrs Walker.

"I never expected you to get married! You always preferred one night stands to relationships." Beth pointed out before she joined the group hug.

"I knew there was a reason that I missed you Beth, shame I haven't found it yet." Zoe replied sarcastically, the three of them had been inseparable all the way from primary school to university where all three of them studied medicine, just different branches. Whilst Zoe had gone into emergency medicine, Michaela had gone into neurology and Beth into cardiology, meaning they hardly saw each other as they were all so busy. "Anyway, I need to go and find my husband but I expect a drink with you girls later."

Zoe walked off in the direction of where she'd last seen Max, bumping into several of her friends in the ED on her way all of whom seemed to be having a good time, even Connie. In the corner of the marque she spotted her new husband with his step sister and two of his best friends, Lofty and Cal, sensing she wasn't needed she headed in Charlie's direction.

"So Mrs Walker, how are you feeling?" Charlie asked as he handed Zoe a glass of champagne.

"Happy." She replied, the beam on her face and the slight twinkle to her eyes confirming the words that were coming out of her mouth. Charlie had been her stand in dad for the day as he parents couldn't make the wedding that had been planned at such short notice, he'd given her away earlier in the day as she walked up the aisle towards the love of her life.

"I've never seen you look so happy, I'm glad you have Max, he balances you." Charlie told her, smiling as he saw Max call Zoe over and the smile on the woman in front of hims face expand. "Go on."

She moved as fast as she could in the wedding dress that she'd chosen, which like most of what Zoe Hanna wore, was not overly practical. It was mere seconds before she reached Max, who immediately kissed her.

"Fancy going out for a cigarette?" Max asked, gesturing towards the pack of fags in his inside suit pocket.

"No, I don't want my wedding dress to stink of smoke." She explained, leaning forward to kiss her new husband purely because she could and then watched as he weaved his way through the dance floor which contained pretty much everyone who was at the wedding reception. She watched as several people stopped him to offer their congratulations and then turned around to her new sister in law, as Max was swallowed up by the crowd.

"I'm glad Max married you, you're good for him." Robyn spoke, offering her new family member a smile. "Ooh, I love this song, wanna dance?" Robyn asked no one in particular and headed off in the direction of the dance floor with Lofty and Cal hot on her heels.

Zoe took a step back, watching for a second as she watched everyone dancing happily, Robyn had even got Max to stay in to dance with her for the song that she apparently loved. When she'd first met Max she'd never expected to be stood at her wedding reception having married him earlier in the day, in fact she'd never really pictured herself getting married and yet here she was. The loud music seemed to be pumping everyone up, taking a drink from the table behind her she downed it. A loud bang boomed over the music and suddenly the room was filled with screams and the air became panicked before yet another blast filled the air. Everything seemed to go into slow motion as she watched her closest friends and her new family being forced to the floor from the pressure of the explosions. The power outage brought Zoe back to her senses and screams could still be heard as well as sobbing, especially now that the music was gone. Part of her wondered whether this was just a bad dream but the majority of her knew that it wasn't.


	2. Aftermath

She ran as fast as the dress and shoes she was wearing would allow her in search of her new husband. Her heart pounded and she felt physically sick at the thought that anything could have happened to Max. Around her she saw people who were okay tending to the people who were less so but still she struggled to spot Max. She jumped between people who were still laying on the ground, her doctor instinct was screaming at her to help them but the desire to find Max was a lot stronger. As she got near to the exit of the tent she came across her husband, laying still on the ground with blood masking his face. Reaching out she placed a finger on his neck and felt for his pulse, she found one almost immediately but things were not looking good for her husband.

"Michaela? Are you okay?" Beth asked as she sat up, the shock having passed and her doctor instinct now kicking in.  
"Yeah, are you?" Michaela asked, coughing slightly before sitting up too, they looked at the sight in front of them and jumped up. Around them lay several people that the recognised from the ED so they set about trying to help.  
"Hi, I'm Michaela and I'm a doctor, are you alright?" Beth heard Michaela asking from nearby.

At the side of the room now stood the majority of the people who'd attended the wedding reception, most of whom were uninjured or had sustained minor injuries during the explosion. The air was tense as the guests who were okay watched as their loved ones were helped. Zoe was still trying her best to help Max in one corner and Connie had joined her as Zoe just sobbed. Noel watched on, unsure of what was happening as a group of people crowded around Honey, his daughter who had come back for 'Hanna' and Max's wedding. Her eyes flickered gently as she drifted in and out of consciousness, her pulse slowing and then racing in a continuous cycle.

Rita lay on the floor, blood trickled down her forehead and yet she desperately felt the urge to get up and help. The pain in her neck told her that she shouldn't move and yet she tried to get up anyway before falling back down as her head suddenly became light and the room became dark.

Beth leant down over an older man, whom she recognised as the man who gave Zoe away. His pulse was weak and barely there and his breathing was shallow, dark purple splodges had began to form on the side of his face and ears.  
"I need some help here now!" Beth called as the ambulances turned up.

The usually bubbly nurse lay quietly on the ground, unable to process what was going on around her. The pain that she had been expecting to feel had not come, her body felt numb and for a second she wondered whether she was already dead. Her eyes remained firmly open, Lofty sat by her side, trying to soothe the surprisingly calm Robyn. He was unable to hide the worry that was evident across his features, especially seeing as the usually flappy nurse seemed to be in a different world entirely.

Dixie sat up slightly, the world turning on its axis as she did so making her feel slightly dizzy and off balance. Beside her lay her old nemesis but now friend, Louise. Her eyes were open yet her body showed little sign of life, to her arms and the side of her face were obvious burns. Dixie leant over Louise, ignoring the pain in her own body, it was then she heard the slight gasping noise that Louise was making and the serious burns that she had sustained to her neck. She'd already had one colleague and friend die on her, she was not going to let this end with a second.

"Make him okay please, we just got married." Zoe begged through her tears to the paramedic who was now strapping Max to a board.  
"We'll do our best madam, will you be coming in the ambulance with him?" The paramedic asked and got a slight nod of the head from Zoe in response. Black lines ran down from Zoe's eyes as the make up that had been so expertly applied that morning was now messily running down her face. In less than five minutes she'd gone from on top of the world to, well she didn't know what.

The six seriously injured patients were loaded onto separated ambulances, each accompanied by a loved one or friend and rushed into the ED, which had been filled with temps for the night.


	3. Robyn

Robyn was rushed through the ED and into resus, she was the first to arrive from the wedding reception and they'd arrived to a virtually empty ED. A team of doctors and nurses filled around the bed taking various blood samples and trying to ask the young nurse questions, all the while she remained silent.

"What happened Lofty?" Tash asked, having drawn the short straw and was put on shift despite having been invited to the wedding herself.

"There was an explosion at the wedding reception, there are several other of our team on their way in." Lofty explained quickly before pushing to get back to Robyn's bedside.

"Robyn, can you hear me?" Lofty asked, worry evident in his voice at the fact that the nurse who usually it was hard to shut up, had not spoken since the accident had happened. Still he got no reply, her eyes moved slightly to look at him but it was more like she was looking through him than at him. "It's me, I'm here and I'm not leaving you." He told her, taking her hand and gently moving it to his lips, placing a kiss on her soft skin.

"Can she hear me?" He asked the doctor who stood looking at the blood results that had just come back from the lab.

"There's nothing that suggests that she can't. I think she's just trying to process everything that's gone on, after all I'm not sure she expected her brother's wedding to end in this manner." The temporary doctor replied.

"Lofty?" Came a slightly whisper from the junior nurse.

"Robyn, are you alright?" Lofty asked, rushing back to her beside and taking her hand again.

"I can't feel... I can't feel my body...what's going on?" She said through tears that were now falling thick and fast down her cheeks. The doctor was listening to her and suddenly got on the phone to CT.

"You'll be alright, I promise. The doctors are doing their best to make you feel all better again."

Within minutes a porter came in and Robyn was rushed to for a full body CT, leaving Lofty in resus on his own. He walked out to the nurses' station where the doctor that was treating Robyn was stood.

"What's wrong with her?" Lofty asked quietly, not sure if he really wanted to know.

"I'm not sure, I'll know more when I get the scan results."

"What are you thinking?" Lofty asked.

"You're a nurse, what would you think if someone came in presenting the same symptoms as Robyn is?" The doctor asked him.

"Paralysis." Lofty answered slowly.

"Yeah, we're hoping that it might be temporary but at the moment we just don't know. Like I said, we'll know more when the scan results are back."

Half an hour later Robyn was back, tears still falling down her face as the longer she lacked feeling, the more she panicked.  
"Am I paralysed?" Robyn asked, trying to located Lofty as best as she could in the room, but failing slightly as she was restrained by a head and neck brace. From the other side of resus she could hear someone enter, their footsteps heavy.

"Miss Miller..."

"Am I paralysed?" Robyn asked, interrupting the doctor as Lofty came into view and took her hand.  
"I'm sorry.." Robyn burst into tears, knowing that that meant yes. "It could just be temporary but for now we'd like to keep you in hospital whilst we monitor what's going on." The doctor spoke softly.

"I'll be right beside you the whole way Robyn, you're like my little sister. I'm not going anywhere."

**A/N Hi, sorry I haven't updated this in a week but I've been busy and ill. So this is Robyn's chapter, please let me know in reviews who out of those who were injured in the explosion in the last chapter, you'd like to see next.**

**Beth x**


	4. Charlie

"This is Charlie Fairhead, 61 years of age, was involved in the explosion. Pulse is there but extreme weak and breathing is shallow. Blood pressure is at 74/32." The paramedic spoke as Charlie was rushed through to resus.

"Right I need an emergency head CT, I think we're looking at a bleed on the brain though." The female doctor ordered. "Can someone get on the phone and sort that, I think we need to ventilate him too to sort this breathing out if he continues not to respond to the oxygen."

Charlie's face was covered in deep purple bruises, his forehead barely visible through them. The suit that he had been wearing for Zoe and Max's wedding had now been ripped open as the team began the second round of CPR after Charlie had gone into VF.

"All clear." The nurse called as she grabbed the defibrillator and placed the wands onto the pads on Charlie's chest. His body jerked slightly but the machine continued to beep as no output was gained. Immediately another doctor stepped back towards the bed and began chest compressions. Although the team didn't know Charlie, they could see how important to the ED he was. They tried their hardest to save him but after multiple cycles of CPR and shocks, they decided to call it as they failed to gain an output from the man on the bed in front of them.

Tess stood outside of the door with Connie standing next to her, having both been kicked out of them room after they'd tried to help. They'd watched hopefully as they watched them battle to save their close friend, both not sure how to react after they saw the tell tale signs that the doctors battling to save Charlie had given up. Somehow it didn't seem real with them on the other end, it seemed strange as they were led towards the relative room.

"I'm sorry, we tried our best." The doctor told the two women gently. "He had a massive bleed on his brain, even if he had pulled through he would have had significant brain damage." She continued softly, seeing the two women in front of her slowly taking in what she was telling them.  
"No, you've clearly got the wrong man. Charlie wouldn't give up so easily, he wouldn't leave this department." Connie replied, still not believing what she was being told.  
"I'm sorry." The doctor said again as she turned to see how Tess was coping.  
"He was so excited for today, to give Zoe away and watch her walk down the aisle. How did the day end like this? He can't be gone." Tess spoke to no one in particular, tears streaming down her face and getting faster and thicker as she continued to speak.  
"I know this isn't how you were expecting your day to end, I know what a massive loss this is to you and to the ED." The doctor finished.  
"Several others of my team are out there and seriously injured, I propose you get back to your job and make sure that I don't lose anymore team members tonight." Connie told the doctor bluntly, not sure how else to cope with the overwhelming grief that was now consuming her.  
"Of course Mrs Beauchamp." 


	5. Louise

"This is Louise Tyler, 36. Injured in the explosion, severe burns to upper body, in particular her neck. Breathing is shallow, pulse is low at 54, and blood pressure is 60 over 30." The paramedic spoke as they wheeled Louise through to resus, with Dixie following along behind.

"It's strange her being so quiet." Dixie spoke to no one in particular as she stood back whilst the doctors worked on the usually loud receptionist.

"I'm not happy with her breathing, I think we're going to have to intubate." The doctor who seemed to be in charge of Louise's case spoke, before a nurse rushed off to get the kit that was needed to facilitate the request.

"I'm worried that that will aggravate the burns on her neck." Another doctor spoke.

"I am too but I don't think we have any other option, her breathing is becoming shallower and her pulse is slowing down. If we don't, we're going to lose her."

"Okay, well we need to intubate, then dress this wounds and call a plastics surgeon. We also need 6 units of blood as soon as we can." The second doctor spoke, who now had the intubating kit having been handed it from a nurse. The nurse shone a torch down Louise's throat as the doctor tried to thread a throat through down to her lungs in order to help the receptionist breathe. "It isn't working. Her throat is too tight."

"Try a smaller tube." The other doctor called, who was on hold to plastics.

"I already tried with the smallest one, it's not happening."

"How's her breathing?" The doctor who was on hold asked.

"Not great, she's only just managing to breathe and oxygen saturation in the blood is getting lower. We really need to do something." A young nurse replied as she looked towards the screen.

"We can't slit into her neck to put it in because I'm worried about the damage that it'll do."

"Plastics are in theatre and won't be done for another couple of hours."

"Is she stable enough to transfer to St James?"

"She would be if we could get her intubated." Came the reply.

"Well we need to try again, St James have a free plastics team on standby for us, if we can get her over there then she has a chance of surviving this." The doctor replied.

"You mean that she's going to die?" Dixie asked.

"Not if we can help her to breathe." The doctor told her.

"Let me try." Dixie spoke, determined to help her friend, she walked around to where the doctor was stood and took the tube from the doctor. After a while she managed to push it through and suddenly the receptionists breathing began to improve now that she was being helped.

"Okay, the ambulance is outside ready to transfer her, let's get her out." Unfortunately Dixie never saw this as she collapsed on the floor in resus. "I need a trolley in here, quickly!" The doctor shouted as he saw the woman who had just saved her friend now lying in a heap on the floor.

"This wedding has been deadly." A doctor spoke as they made themselves a coffee whilst on their break.

"Yeah, already they've lost Charlie Fairhead and I wouldn't be surprised if we lost another before the day is out."

"Poor Dr Hanna, or Walker now. I knew her back at medical school and I never thought I'd see her getting married."

From outside the door they suddenly heard the black phone go, the phone that signalled non-emergencies.

"I'll get it." The doctor spoke before putting his coffee down and walking towards the phone.

"Hello, Holby ED."

"Hi, it's the plastics team over at St James, we thought you'd want an update."

"Is this about Louise Tyler?" The doctor asked.

"Yes, I'm sorry to tell you that she died in theatre, she began to bleed and we couldn't manage to stop it."

"Okay, thanks for the update." The doctor replied, sadly thinking about the statement that had been made not long before about losing another life before the day was out. For a second he wondered how many more lives would be lost as a result of the wedding reception.


End file.
